The Morning Routine

Mornings are crazy in our house. I have three kids who have to be fed and get to school. A starts at 8:10 the other 2 at 8:30. I live about a 15 minute drive from the school. I get up and exercise (well I try to) and then shower and get dressed before I wake up the kids. Now I go from drop off to my office so when I say get dressed I mean the whole 9 yards inlcuding makeup and often a suit.

Anyway, the one thing I have found that makes things go as smoothly as possible is the night before preparations. I make lunches, set up the coffee pot and assemble what I call the station. That's this wall hook by my front door. Each childs backpack has a hook and their sweater/sweatshirt hangs under it. All homework and lunches and library books are in the backpack before they go to bed. At least this way some of the chaos is minimalized. Do you have a routine or a great tip? I'm always looking for ideas to improve!